Pro-life demonstrators march towards the US Supreme Court during the 44th annual March for Life in Washington, DC (Photo credit should read ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images)

South Dakota State Representative Steven Haugaard used some perplexing reasoning to defend the ramping up of the state’s already intense anti-abortion legislation last week. In making his case for a new bill that would punish doctors for performing “pain-capable” abortions with a Class 6 Felony — it is currently punished as a Class 1 Misdemeanor — Haugaard argued that limiting abortion access wasn’t actually an attack on women since “half of the abortions include the death of a girl.”

The bill passed the House last Tuesday and now, if approved by the Senate, will be made into law making doctors who perform “pain-capable” abortions subject to either a two years at a state penitentiary or a $4,000 fine, or both.

As the law currently stands, women in South Dakota can access abortions until the 13th week of gestation, after which the procedure is deemed “pain capable.” If the case of a woman’s life being, an abortion is allowed up to 20 weeks.

This will prove another victory in the fast-moving assault on women’s reproductive rights being led by the anti-choice movement. While one-quarter of all abortion restrictions enacted since Roe v. Wade have been passed in the last five years alone, the Trump administration has indicated it will continue the trend toward clamping down on abortion rights on a federal level. Meanwhile, individual states continue to chip away at women’s reproductive rights. On Tuesday, The Associated Press reported, an Indiana House panel approved an abortion reversal bill for the second time. Should the measure one day become law, it would require abortion providers to to give women undergoing drug-induced abortions information on stopping the abortion up until halfway through the procedure — even though such a practice has little basis in science.